To make a long story short, we had a flight from Hong Kong to Vietnam and we were unsure of the baggage weight restrictions because the info online was a little confusing, so we decided to be responsible and called United's international line to find out what the restriction was. We were told each passenger was allowed 2 bags, 50 pounds per bag. So between the two of us, we were allowed 4 bags, 200 pounds total. Well, less than 6 hours later, we arrived at the airport, preparing to fly out of Hong Kong, and are stopped at the check-in counter. The United Airlines employee tells us that the weight limit is actually only 25 kg (about 50 pounds) per PASSENGER, period. So we were basically overweight by 100 pounds. They then charged us $378.07 for the overweight baggage. It cost more than our ticket! Even after we explained to the customer service rep that we called ahead and were told differently, she insisted "We would never say that!" and forced us to pull out our laptop at the counter to try to call the United call center to prove that we had talked to someone. Of course, we could not connect to the internet, so she just kept shaking her head and telling us we were going to miss our flight if we didn't pay. So we basically paid, just so we could get on the plane. She even said, "IF that really is the case, you can call customer relations and they should have a copy of the conversation and you should be able to get a refund."
Anyway, we called customer relations once we were in Vietnam, were on the phone for 2 hours, most of the time on hold while they bounced us between 3 customer service reps and a supervisor, who finally told us that we were not going to get the refund that one of the reps told us we were going to get because we were indeed "overweight". He did not care that we were only overweight because we were told we were allowed to bring that much luggage on board. And to top it all off, the rep that we first spoke to ALSO told us the wrong information about the luggage weight restrictions (he said "oh, you should have 50 pounds per bag, 2 bags per passenger. Let me transfer you to refunds so you can get your refund.") When we called the same international number as before our flight and asked again, we had TWO customer service agents give us the same wrong information. One of them even admitted that it was all very confusing and they often give customers the wrong information. I told this to the customer relations supervisor, who did not care and said they were not responsible for employee errors! WHO is supposed to be responsible for employee errors then, if not the company that I am supposed to be able to trust for information regarding their own services?
I appealed to my bank, Washington Mutual, asking for them to refund my money as a chargeback to United Airlines, and they told me that they could not refund my money either because "the merchant did indeed provide the goods or services for which you paid." It didn't matter to anyone that we had names, times, reference numbers for every conversation. I think it is a pretty simple case. United told us the wrong information, then charged us for it. I don't understand why no one else sees this and will refund us our money. Why are we using our tax dollars to bail out airline companies if they are going to be such jerks about keeping their word and screwing over customers, all the while admitting that it is their fault?! I am so disappointed in the state of customer relations in American companies today. If anyone has any advice about where to go with this next, I'd love to hear it.
0 comments